"Broad demographic shifts in marital status, educational attainment and employment have transformed the way young adults in the U.S. are living, and an analysis of census data highlights the implications of these changes for the most basic element of their lives – where they call home. In 2014, for the first time in more than 130 years, adults ages 18 to 34 were slightly more likely to be living in their parents’ home than they were to be living with a spouse or partner in their own household."

The data:

Percent of AdultsAges 18 to 34

Living Arrangement

1880

1940

1960

2014

Living at home with parents

30

35

20

32.1

Married or co-habitation in own household

45

46

62

31.6

Living alone, single parents, and other head of household

3

3

5

14

Other living arrangement

22

16

13

22

Several factors contributed to this shift:

"The first is the postponement of, if not retreat from, marriage. The median age of first marriage has risen steadily for decades. In addition, a growing share of young adults may be eschewing marriage altogether. A previous Pew Research Center analysis projected that as many as one-in-four of today’s young adults may never marry. While cohabitation has been on the rise, the overall share of young adults either married or living with an unmarried partner has substantially fallen since 1990.

In addition... employed young men are much less likely to live at home than young men without a job, and employment among young men has fallen significantly in recent decades. The share of young men with jobs peaked around 1960 at 84%. In 2014, only 71% of 18- to 34-year-old men were employed. Similarly with earnings, young men’s wages (after adjusting for inflation) have been on a downward trajectory since 1970 and fell significantly from 2000 to 2010. As wages have fallen, the share of young men living in the home of their parent(s) has risen."

And there are differences by gender:

"For men ages 18 to 34, living at home with mom and/or dad has been the dominant living arrangement since 2009. 'In 2014, 28 percent of young men were living with a spouse or partner in their own home, while 35 percent were living in the home of their parent(s). For their part, young women are on the cusp of crossing over this threshold: They are still more likely to be living with a spouse or romantic partner (35%) than they are to be living with their parent(s) (29%). In 2014, more young women (16%) than young men (13%) were heading up a household without a spouse or partner. This is mainly because women are more likely than men to be single parents living with their children..."

Additional findings:

"In 2014, 40 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds who had not completed high school lived with parent(s), the highest rate observed since the 1940 Census when information on educational attainment was first collected.

Young adults in states in the South Atlantic, West South Central and Pacific United States have recently experienced the highest rates on record of living with parent(s).

With few exceptions, since 1880 young men across all races and ethnicities have been more likely than young women to live in the home of their parent(s)."

The methodology included decennial census data and large samples, typically 1 percent of young adults nationwide.